Diocese of Cheyenne by Pope Leo XIII. At first there was some confusion in the press, who mistakenly believed that Reverend Bartholomew C. Lenihan, his cousin and the vicar general of the Archdiocese of Dubuque, had been appointed. Thomas Lenihan received his episcopal consecration on February 24, 1897, from Archbishop Hennessy, with Bishops Henry Cosgrove and Thomas Bonacum serving as co-consecrators, at St. Raphael's Cathedral. The Diocese of Cheyenne had been without a bishop for nearly four years after his predecessor, Bishop Maurice Burke, had been transferred to the Diocese of Saint Joseph in Missouri and had argued for the suppression of the Wyoming diocese. When Lenihan arrived in Cheyenne in 1897, the diocese contained eight priests, nine churches, and one parochial school for 3,000 Catholics. By the time of his death three years later, there were 6,000 Catholics, 26 churches, 15 priests, and four parochial schools. Later life and death Lenihan's health deteriorated while in Wyoming due to its high altitude and low humidity. While retaining his title as bishop, he returned to Iowa in 1901 to live with his brother Mathius in Marshalltown. Despite his poor health, the bishops of the ecclesiastical province of Dubuque recommended him to be named bishop of Sioux City (the second time he had been suggested for that office) but the appointment never came. Thomas Lenihan died in Marshalltown on December 15, 1901, at age 57. References 1843 births 1901 deaths People from County Cork People from Cheyenne, Wyoming Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Dubuque Roman Catholic bishops of Cheyenne St. Francis Seminary (Wisconsin) alumni 19th-century Roman Catholic bishops in the United States Irish emigrants to the United States (before 1923) Religious leaders from Iowa